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Hate is a Strong Word

I HATE really dislike pre-lit trees… Yes, they are absolutely splendid the first three to four years after bringing the chosen one home from your local home improvement store. Then, about 3.5 years down the road , right after the warranty expires (imagine that!), things start going downhill and fast. My first artificial tree was a pre-lit one, and I was in love with it. The ease. No worries about it drying out. The speediness of set up. Well, the time I saved with a pre-lit was all paid back and then some this past Sunday as I clipped 450 lights off the silly thing then rewired it with 700 new lights. Obviously, the manufacturers expected me to just toss this member of the family to the curb and fall in love with another one! Not me, I’m too committed and cheap. 🙂 Anyway, so after going through the hassle of “fixing” lights then un-decorating, then redecorating the tree, I have most of what Christmas decor we have here, out. The boxes in storage marked “XMAS” are too numerous to remember. When I’m finally able to get them out of storage one day, it will be like Christmas! haha

Here’s a bit of our home this year. 🙂

I found these candle arrangements at one of my favorite home decorating stores, Wal-mart. 🙂

Please Friends, when decorating for the holidays, hide your year-round things in the cabinet and give the spotlight to the seasonal decor. Thanks.

And when year-round decor hangs around, like Miss Hen, I make sure she is properly attired.

All aglow. Can you pick out the ten ornaments that I did not make? (hint: I like to paint wood and wrap fabric around Styrofoam balls. 🙂 )

The hallway mirror is draped with a simple berry garland.

A few weeks ago, my dearest cousin was here visiting and we decided to get crafty. We found this super simple craft on Pinterest. Here’s the link for instructions. I decided to leave the star off the top and put one of my snowmen ornaments standing guard by the tree.

When it’s all said and done, Christmas is not about the stuff that I fill the house with or whether we have white or multi-colored lights on the tree… We celebrate this joyous holiday for One reason only, Christ’s birth. In our family, we have fun with Santa and presents but the one thing I want for our boys to understand this season is the miracle of God’s Love through Christ.